How to Build a Global Community

Think of no one as “them”
Don’t confuse your comfort with your safety
Talk to strangers
Imagine other cultures through their poetry and novels
Listen to music you don’t understand*Dance to it
Act Locally
Notice the workings of power & privilege in your culture
Question consumption
Know how your lettuce and coffee are grown: wake up
and smell the exploitation
Look for fair trade and union labels
Help build economies from the bottom up
Acquire few needs
Learn a second(or third) language
Visit people,places, and cultures – not tourist attractions
Learn people’s history*Re-define progress
Know physical and political geography
Play games from other cultures*Watch films with subtitles
Know your heritage
Honor everyone’s holidays
Look at the moon and imagine someone else,
Somewhere else, looking at it too
Read the UNs Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Understand the global economy in terms of
people, land, and water
Know where your bank banks
Never believe you have the right to anyone else’s resources
Refuse to wear corporate logos: defy corporate domination
Question military/corporate connections
Don’t confuse money with wealth, or time with money
Have a pen/email pal*Honor indigenous cultures
Judge governance by how well it meets all people’s needs
Be skeptical about what you read
Eat adventurously*Enjoy vegetables,
Beans and grains in your diet
Choose curiosity over certainty
Know where your water comesfrom
and where your wastes go
Pledge allegiance to the earth;question nationalism
Think South, Central, and North-
There are many Americans
Assume that many others share your dreams
Know that no one is silent though many are not heard
Work to change this

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Text: Members SCW Community ©2002. Illustration: Melinda Levine, cut paper